Is my optical drives problem hardware or software?

I have a Sony Vaio PCG-7113L, which I've downgraded (upgraded) to Windows XP. I'm having a variety of problems with the optical drive on this unit and have been unable to narrow my problem to hardware or software. I'd appreciate some help.

My problems started when I first bought the machine--the CD drive being the only thing on it that didn't seem well designed. It's flimsy, and is often opened by accident due to the placement of the button. When reading data it would at times accelerate and vibrate loudly, such that one had to put a finger under it to keep the noise down. I was concerned at first, but since the data seemed to read just fine, and the problem wasn't constant, I dismissed it as more evidence of shoddy design.

More recently this seems to have gotten worse. In addition, I've had trouble ripping audio CD's -- I'm using Media Monkey, and I keep getting read errors right as the rip starts, or producing files with large numbers of skips and errors in them (this from brand new CDs that work well elsewhere). Also, I can no longer play DVDs in the drive because the sound is consistently out-of-sync with the image, regardless of the player I use (generally Media Player Classic).

So now I'm wondering, is my hardware bad and in need of replacement, or is the vibration indeed insignificant and the other problems due to some software problem which I've been unable to track down?

Thanks for any help.

 

Try going back to Vista (I assume you came from), if it works there you know it's a software problem, or more properly, a firmware problem with the drive. If this is the case, there's a few things you can do: see if there's different firmware for your drive (from the manufacturer's website, unlikely you'll find something), get a new drive, or stick with Vista (?), it's really not that bad now and unless you have an absolute need for XP there's no reason to have it.

 

While I appreciate the advice, NotMe, going back to Vista would be a prohibitively burdensome process right now (not to mention the fact that I'm still not a fan). Beside that, the problems I'm having didn't manifest at first as far as I can tell, aside from the vibration, so I don't see how the Windows version could possibly be the cause.

Any ideas on how I could narrow this down without reinstalling my OS?